Waterproof electrical wire enclosures are employed where damage or short-circuiting can be expected from moisture conditions or even flooding conditions. Typical examples are golf courses and underground sprinkler systems utilizing buried wiring, and especially those systems having solenoid-operated valves. Wiring at nature center waterfalls, flood-lighted landscaping, and rock gardens are additional examples. But regardless of the circumstances giving rise to the need for an encapsulated splice, the assembly or kit will include an insulating cylinder of sufficient size to receive the insulation-covered wire conductors, a connector which joins the bare or uncovered wire ends and a waterproofing compound such as a gel or grease. Usually the connector is a thimble-shaped twist-on or screw-on connection, but other connections are also employed such as set screw, crimp and split bolt connectors.
The waterproofing compound is usually added to the capsule first. The bared or uncovered wire ends are in effect spliced or joined conductively by the connector, and the spliced connection thus made is inserted into the capsule or cylinder where it is covered by the waterproofing compound resulting in a waterproofed sealed electrical juncture.
The present invention addresses the problem of assuring the splice thus completed cannot be removed from the encapsulating tube or cylinder either by inadvertence or by accidental or unexpected forces. The means by which this is accomplished also allows several connectors to be incorporated within one tube and, in addition, serves to keep the waterproofing compound in place so that the wire nut remains fully covered.
Regarding means to prevent removal, the best prior art of which I am aware is U.S. Pat. No., 4,839,473 in which there are retaining barbs molded integral with the inside diameter of the encapsulating tube.
The primary object of the present invention is to more efficiently prevent removal of the connector than has heretofore been proposed or achieved, to enable connectors of various sizes (large to small inside and outside diameter) to be effectively blocked against removal, to enable one tube to receive and hold at least two connectors and at the same time to afford a plug or stopper which restrains or limits the tendency of the waterproofing compound to flow during insertion of the wire connection, assuring the encapsulated compound flows around the entire connector.